Tonight’s News Today — The Various Oscar Scenarios

Well, here is your annual opportunity to see the sausage being made. My Oscar recap — a fairly long article — is due less than 45 minutes after the Oscars are over. And that’s assuming it ends ON TIME, and it rarely does. That means I have to write during the ceremony — except for most of the ceremony, nothing is happening. We don’t know anything until right before the end, and then the information comes fast and furious.

The only way to write these things is to write them in advance, accounting for all scenarios, and then paste it all together and smooth it out. It’s not pretty, but it has to be done.

And so we have the above gallery, accounting for various possibilities, including ones I don’t at all expect will happen.

Keep in mind, this is first draft, very rough. What actually gets into the paper will be a little different. As in polished, as in better. But this will give you an idea of how the newspaper will look tomorrow, if you can find your way through the maze and see what will actually happen.